國際形象扭曲 被誤讀的法國

The terrorist attacks on France were a shock. The ensuing wave of Mostly uninformed foreign opining about France was not. Even more than other countries, France has a distorted international image.

對法國的恐怖襲擊令人震驚。隨之而來的一波外國人對法國不着邊際的評論卻並非如此。相對於其他國家，法國的國際形象更爲扭曲。

Perversely, that’s because foreigners tend to feel they know France. After all, it’s the world’s most visited country. It used to foist its “civilisation” on other people. It still takes up disproportionate global mindshare. It rejects many international shibboleths on how to run a country. Many foreigners speak a bit of French. So the temptation is to feel that they understand France, and disagree with it. Hence the phenomenon that the French call le French bashing (something at which they themselves excel). I live in Paris and collect misunderstandings about France. Here are a few:

變態的是，造成這種狀況的原因是外國人往往覺得自己瞭解法國。畢竟，法國是世界上游客到訪最多的國家。它過去常把自己“文明”強加到其他民族。它在全球意識中仍佔有重要一席。它拒絕很多國際上通行的治國套路。許多外國人能說一點兒法語。所以，他們忍不住覺得自己瞭解法國，但不與其苟同。於是就出現了法國人所稱的“敲打法國”現象（其實法國人自己也擅長此道）。住在巴黎的我，收集了一些有關法國的誤解。以下列出其中一些：

“France is sliding back into anti-Semitism.”Many French Jews are rightly scared. This month’s murder of four people in the kosher supermarket was only the latest anti-Semitic attack here. But it’s the anti-Semitism of a small jihadi cluster, a tiny minority within French Muslims. Meanwhile mainstream anti-Semitism looks weaker than ever: 89 per cent of French people polled by Pew Research last year expressed positive attitudes towards Jews. France today is neither Vichy nor Eurabia.

“法國正在倒退至反猶太主義。”許多法國猶太人有理由害怕。本月發生在巴黎一家猶太超市的4人被殺事件只是最新一起反猶太襲擊。但這是一小撮聖戰分子的反猶太主義，他們在法國的穆斯林中只佔極少數。與此同時，主流反猶太主義看起來空前虛弱：在皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Centre)去年調查的法國人中，89%表達了對猶太人的積極態度。今天的法國既不是維希政權(Vichy)，也並非“歐拉伯”(Eurabia)。

“France is a museum, stuck in the past.” To the contrary, just before the terrorists attacked, France was having a very creative moment. Fed up with economic stagnation, the French were borrowing ideas from abroad.

“法國是一個博物館，被釘在過去。”與此相反，在恐怖分子發動襲擊前，法國正處在一個很有創造力的時期。受夠了經濟停滯的法國人，正在從國外借鑑經驗。

People across France have become “open to the world”, argues French economist Robin Rivaton. The Pisani-Ferry report, commissioned by the government to set national targets for 2025, obsessively benchmarks France against other countries, notes Helen Drake of Loughborough University. The report’s aspirations — for instance, for France to have 10 “world-class multidisciplinary universities” — reflect the national belief that France should always be number one and cutting-edge.

法國經濟學家羅賓•裏瓦東(Robin Rivaton)認爲，法國人已經開始“對世界開放”。拉夫堡大學(Loughborough University)的海倫•德雷克(Helen Drake)指出，法國政府爲了設定2025年國家目標而委託制定的皮薩尼-費裏(Pisani-Ferry)報告，念念不忘地將法國與其他國家進行基準對比。報告列出的各項抱負——例如，法國要擁有10所“世界級的綜合大學”——反映了一種國民信仰，即法國應該永遠是第一，永遠站在最前沿。

International thinking is changing France: les start-ups in the tech sector venerate Silicon Valley; restaurant chefs have brought home ideas from stints in the Anglosphere; and, as French schools wonder how to emulate Finland, there’s a national debate about dumping France’s brutal grading system. Or read French novelist Patrick Modiano’s speech accepting the 2014 Nobel Prize for literature: it’s a eulogy to foreign role models from Osip Mandelstam to Alfred Hitchcock.

國際上的思維正在改變法國：法國高科技初創企業膜拜硅谷；餐廳廚師從英語文化圈(Anglosphere)的工作經驗帶回了創意；而且，在法國學校研究如何模仿芬蘭時，該國開展了一場關於取消殘酷評分制度的辯論。或者，讀一下法國小說家帕特里克•莫迪亞諾(Patrick Modiano)接受2014年諾貝爾文學獎時的演講稿：那是一篇對外國榜樣——從奧斯普•曼德爾斯塔姆(Osip Mandelstam)到阿爾弗雷德•希區柯克(Alfred Hitchcock)——的頌詞。

Is France a museum? Economist Jean Tirole just won a Nobel too, Thomas Piketty is changing the global economic debate and on January 11 million marched for freedom of expression.

法國是一個博物館嗎？經濟學家讓•梯若爾(Jean Tirole)剛剛也獲得了諾貝爾獎；托馬斯•皮凱蒂(Thomas Piketty)正在改變全球經濟辯論；1月11日，數百萬人爲捍衛言論自由而遊行。

“The French reject change because they want to hang on to their privileges.” It’s true that whenever any government timidly proposes a reform, some group shouts it down: farmers, notaries, pilots, trade unions, etc. But these are small privileged interest groups. Only 8 per cent of French workers belong to a union — fewer than in the US. Ever more French people are unprivileged outsiders on temporary contracts. Most of them want change.

“法國人拒絕改變，因爲他們想保住自己的特權。”沒錯，每當政府（無論由誰主政）膽怯地提議一項改革，總會有一些羣體強烈抗議：農民、公證員、飛行員以及工會等等。但這些都是小範圍的享受特殊待遇的利益集團。只有8%的法國工人加入了工會——比例小於美國。越來越多的法國人簽訂臨時合同，成爲享受不到特權的局外人。他們中大多數人希望改變。